Organizing Committee Member
Janet Wallace
Associate Professor
Queens Mary University of London
Australia
Biography
Dr Janet Wallace is an Oral Health Therapist, Senior Lecturer and the Program Convenor of the Bachelor of Oral Health Therapy program at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Janet became interested in the oral health of older people in 2009, when she implemented the UON oral health student placement program in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) on the NSW Central Coast, Australia. Since then, as part of their undergraduate degree, final year students have attended a 12 week placement providing residents with oral health education, risk assessments and care plans and have increased the profile of oral health with RACF staff. Janet has 6 years of published research associated with the program and as a result, other Australian Universities have implemented her student placement program. In 2014, Janet received a $100,000 grant to place a qualified oral health practitioner in 5 RACFs on the NSW, Central Coast to deliver a preventive oral health service, known as ‘Senior Smiles’. Janet is dedicated to ensuring that older people maintain good oral health when they enter RACFs and the ‘Senior Smiles’ research shows that for oral health to be managed positively, it is necessary to have oral health preventive practioners embedded within the RACFs. This area of Janet’s research is currently being extended into geriatric rehabilitation wards at Woy Woy public hospital where oral health students deliver the ‘Senior Smiles’ model of care. In 2017, Janet received a milestone Oral Health grant of $540,000 grant from the Elderslee Foundation Australia to extend the Senior Smiles’ research for another 3 years. Janet provides RACF management and staff and qualified oral health practitioners with the documentation and support to implement the ‘Senior Smiles’ model of care in RACFs. Janet continues to present her ‘Senior Smiles’ research at both national and international conferences while lobbying to increase oral health preventive care for older people living in RACFs
Research Area
Oral health Therapy